We are a small family estate of 10Ha of vines, three of olive trees, six of meadows (three generations of peasant winegrowers) on the eastern edge of Hérault in the Saint Chinian appellation.

Our valley named Gabelas is composed of plutonic alluvium from the Triassic. Kaolinite, quartz, feldspar and hematite nodules are available in sandstone and pudding. Heir to a land cultivated for several millennia, our soils in 2000 barely exceeded 1% organic matter (3.8% today). With the help of the Mediterranean climate, the erosion of vineyard plots borders on caricature, losing several centimeters per year. Peasant winegrowers, we have always been growing cereals/legumes and meadows.

Traditionally as part of the rest of plots between two perennial crops. From 2005 these annual crops migrated between rows to compensate for plowing which is becoming rarer. In 2007 we designed and produced a disc seeder for vines. Direct sowing then became widespread, allowing completely different technical routes including pastoralism; before, during and after sowing the plant cover. Today the plots which allow it are managed exclusively with plants and animals (flock of 50 sheep 15 goats). Mechanical passages are almost non-existent, limiting them to amendments (marc) and spraying.

We are involved in fungal and global environmental issues with several structures: GIEE, Chemin Cuillant association, BIO CIVAM and AFAF. This allows us to carry out experimentation and diagnosis in partnership with state structures such as INRA, Natural History Museum. The issues of conservation and renewal of wine genetics are also part of ongoing projects. Last planting, rootstock in 2017, then mass of maccabeu grafted in place in 2020. Agroforestry plot, line of various fruit trees every four rows of vines.

Registered with “écocert” since 2003. Adherent to “Nature et Progrès” as well as to the “For an agriculture of living” label. Practicing winemaking without inputs for more than ten years, we joined the natural method wine label last year. Since their creation in Larzac in 2003, our wine is officially that of the “voluntary GMO reapers”.

We are convinced that access to the terroir is achieved through the microfauna of the soil. For a living wine you need a living soil, I believe. So raw woody and composted amendments coming mainly from the estate. BRF, straws, sheep manure. Mobilizing all those involved in composting on the plot is our horizon. Average yield per hectare 20 Hector liter. Without irrigation.

We try to reinforce the vines in this vegetation: long pruning with disbudding, braiding/no trimming, never overloading grapes (green harvest if necessary). Our grapes being the main responsible for the quality of our juices, the vinification part has long been purified.

In our cellar, indigenous yeasts have been in the spotlight for more than a decade: almost systematic stock, sometimes spontaneously. Our wines are not filtered, the only possible input being egg white (in the event of an undesirable lactic population) to precipitate the bret germs if too large.

But definitively, it is through the play of successive sub-drawings that we select the flora which perpetuates our wines. Vinifying for several generations, the knowledge of the affinities between plots is well established, our blends are made partly at harvest, greatly reducing the risk of stopping fermentation, no or little residual sugar, no aromatic deviation.

Domaine grape variety;

Grenache, Carignan, Sinsault, Syrah for the blacks.

Grey/white Grenache, Clairette, Macabeu.

Sulphiting being far from systematic. This one, if it occurs, it is a little before bottling, never in winemaking, maximum dose 2-3 grams per hectoliter. Except for BIB, at the end of summer for reasons of container porosity. “A lively wine is a living wine. » and it is indeed an elsewhere that intoxication offers...

Traditional vatting: three weeks minimum maceration with punching down depending on the harvest and the nature of the wines desired. We do a single carbonic maceration tank on Syrah, the CO2 produced is used to cover the pressing of the rosé and white. Those are then vinified in barrels for 1 to 2 years. Unfined, unfiltered, malolactic made of course. The only trick: thermoregulation during fermentation.

Also, it happens that we make a maceration blank. Just like a red, with half Amphoterre, half barrel aging.

We are autonomous throughout the entire production chain, from planting/grafting to bottling, including sheep shearing and fodder (hay) production. Our labels are made by four friendly painters. We also produce our breeding containers. In stoneware, fired in wood. They are marketed under the name Amphoterre. Stoneware bottles and magnums are also hand-made. (additional information on the “Amphoterre” Facebook page attached to “Epicure de Gabelas”).

For the marketing of our wines: Various wine merchants throughout France, Angevin and Parisian bistros in particular. Some export to Norway and Japan. Local bio-coop network, establishment of a short circuit in 2005 and an associative farmer's shop in 2018, farmers' market in 2020 (confinement required).